Rocket Launches

One of the things we have enjoyed since being here are all the launches. There are so many things that I never fully took advantage of while growing up here and those are definitely one of them. I brought my camera to one of the night launches and it's hard to describe what it was like. The brightness of the launch probably threw off my exposure by 2 stops and looked like the sun was rising in the photos. Charly and I both are excited to see another one like that but hope the next one isn't at 4am on a Wednesday because that would really test our dedication to seeing them...

Before the launch.

The beginning.

And the middle.

Eliza Lately

Eliza is in the stage where she is learning so fast and developmentally growing in such leaps and bounds that we can hardly keep up. It's funny how when they're baby babies, and not toddlers, you record everything. Like "Eliza is 3 months old today and has no trouble holding her head up on her own, pooping tons, and even made a sound that sounded like car but really we all know it wasn't intentional." Then they get to this age and they are doing all these incredible, even more noteworthy, things and it's just impossible to keep track of it all. You would literally drive yourself mad and the list would be so long that the instagram updates kind of peter off.

Alas, here are some of the cuter things we'd like to remember:

>The other day, while waiting for my mom to come over and watch Em while I went to a Dr. Appt., I was getting dressed in the closet and didn't hear the door bell ring or the knocking. Eliza was in the kitchen at the time and came running to me all concerned. She demanded I pick her up and then proceeded to point us to the door. When I asked her if someone was at the door she, as best she could, said "door!" Which was more like "doh!".

>She is the child that values order and cleanliness. She consistently stacks things in one area, then moves them to another, then back to the first. Charly changed her diaper in the living room and when he didn't throw it away she picked it up, then pulled him up and guided him to the pantry door so that he would open it and she could throw it in the trash can inside. Yesterday she spilled the smaaaallest drop of spaghetti sauce onto the table and became too concerned about it to continue on with her meal. I had to bring her a paper towel so that she could wipe it up before she'd start eating again. She also loves to have her hands and face wiped consistently throughout a meal.

>Despite being born in the mountains, she is a total water babe through and through. Doesn't matter if the pool is in the sixties, she'll go up to the gate and beg to be let out so she can play on the steps. She also loves to be hit by hoses and water guns!

>She's is teething hard and it's made for some interesting naps.

Anyways, we went to the park today and I have also been try to get back on the proverbial bike when it comes to picture taking, so here's that:

^^She is a total bookworm. We read books before every nap and bedtime as part of the winding down process but there are days where we have random hour long reading sessions and the only way I can get a reprieve is to bribe her with cheese or crackers. Other wise, when I finally get up and start to leave she just just stands by our rocking chair and pats it very deliberately with her hand to beckon me over.

She also runs to us when she's upset and it is super adorable- her sad sad face for whatever benign reason and her arms all outstretched and she closes the few feet between us.

Happy New Year

There are currently so many posts that should really come before this one, since this blog acts as more of a journal and I generally like to journal in chronological order. There is just way too much photo archiving to do before I can get those up and this is easier. So here goes...

happy new year!

I'm sure I said it before but we are not new years people over here. There were no goals set for the new year and not even a conversation about wether or not we'd try to stay up late. We set some goals a week or two ago and those are what we'll be hacking away at, new year or not. We did have a small celebration. Charly and I made deviled eggs, drank Martinelli's, and watched Spectre (again). I googled James Bond's middle name, since Eliza was partially named after "M" and I thought it would be cool, if we were to ever have a boy, to continue on with the theme. Since James is already taken many a-times in the hill family, I wondered if there might be another, low key name, that would work. Unfortunately, it's "Herbert." Like sherbert, and the old man with a cane that eats it.

Anyways, it was one of my favorite nights of the Christmas break, as well an amazing surf day, family beach day, dolphin sighting, and many other things. We really squeezed it all out of this break- goodness knows Charly deserved it- and are sad that it ends at 6:30am tomorrow, when Chuck goes back to work. We also did a handful of house projects, and took the first pictures of the new year on Sunday...